The world is full of interesting subjects. Let your gaze travel around your surroundings. Usually it is the many details, certain areas and interesting perspectives that go unnoticed. See the maple leaf covered in a spider webs glistening with dew in the morning sun, the spark of laughter in a loved one‘s eyes, the beam of light breaking through the bed of clouds… Explore the world with open eyes. There are endless amounts of image subjects to be discovered.

Focus on what you see. Much too often we perceive the world in a select manner and fade out the things that don’t comply with our vision. In photography, this happens repeatedly and results in not noticing undesired elements until after the image has been captured, even though they would have been clearly visible through the viewfinder. In these cases, the camera is the more objective party.

Concentrate firmly on what you can see and not what you believe you can see. The camera captures everything that is in front of lens, but our brain fades out unnecessary elements. It’s not until later when looking at the captured image that you see what was really in front of you. Often you simply concentrate on the object being photographed and not the light and shadows that can impact the image result more than we realise in the moment.

Pay attention to what is around, behind and in front of you!

Especially beginners need to be reminded that when they are taking a photograph, it is important to pay attention to what is in front of and behind the image subject and also what is around, above and below the image section. Particularly with a great depth of field (e.g. short focal length and/or small diaphragm diameter), these objects can dominate an image and often be quite comical, e.g. the Eiffel Tower growing out of someone’s head.